ARHT241

This course traces the history of African American art, beginning with several key culture groups in Africa and extending into the African-inspired material culture of slaves, and later, encompassing the works of formally-trained as well as self-taught painters, sculptors, photographers, and artists working in multi-media up to the present. Special emphasis will be placed upon the resonances of African artistic traditions in African-American art. These works will be situated within the contexts of critical race theory, social and political movements, collectors and patrons, early critics and theorists of the black avant-garde, influential exhibitions, and the opposition between elite and popular cultures.